Carlo Bach, Art Director — illycaffè
Carlo talks to TheNextGag about his involvement in the creative projects, the relationship between coffee and art and his selection process for the artists illy parters with.
Carlo Bach is the Art Director for illyCaffè in Italy
He is at the helm of the illy Art Collection project. In the recent years, illy has partnered for its cups and cans collections with some great artists such as Louise Bourgoin, Marina Abramovic or Jeff Koons.
THENEXTGAG: WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ILLYCAFFÈ AND ART ?
Carlo Bach: We started the art project in ’92. So more than 22 years ago.
There are three good reasons for this.
The first is connected with passion. illy is a company, it’s a family company and there is passion in general for culture in the illy family. And this is also why Francesco Illy, who is one of the third generation of the family, started the project in ’92. It was a very simple idea at the beginning : to surround the illy cup, that had been designed in the same year by Matteo Thun, an Italian designer– with something visual that can reach the coffee moment. So the first reason is the passion for art and culture in general.
And then I have to say that there are other public reasons. The first is that coffee is simple to connect with creativity and with art, because we use it to stimulate our mind, so it is a perfect match with creative people. It is food for mind, I would say.
And the other thing is that the café as a place is a meeting point for art. It was so in Paris, it is so today, it is so in Vienna, it was in Trieste, in Venice, in lots of places. The cafés were the meeting points for cultural revolution, for the creative things …
So these are mainly the three reasons. One is connected with the passion of the illy family for culture in general, and the other two are because coffee can perfectly be mixed with art and contemporary art for its creative capacity. It is food for mind.
TNG: HOW DO YOU SELECT THE ARTISTS THAT YOU WORK WITH ON THE DESIGN OF THE NEW CUPS AND CANS ?
CB: We are trying to work with three/two big groups of artists. The first is top artists and then we are trying also to promote young artists that are selected in different ways.
With the great artists, it is very different. Because we are trying to look for what’s going on in the world, on what are the best artists working. And so we try to help and to see in a 360° vision what’s going on in the art world.
Sometimes we do things connected with shows that are running. And there is the example of Paris, because two years ago when Daniel Buren called me and said to me “I have a big exhibition in the Grand Palais, for Monumental. I have an idea to put an illy bar in the middle of the installation. So why don’t we work together for this special project that connects illy to the exhibition.” Sometimes we prepare the work, and sometimes we are trying also to work on some great opportunities that the artists are proposing to us.
On the other side, we have the younger artists. And we are trying to select them in collaboration with foundations and art fairs. We have a permanent relationship with the Stiletto Foundation in Italy. And also we were doing a project last week in connection with the art fair Artissima. So we try to work with the artistic field in general to create special contests letting discover young artists.
And the third way to select artists is through our illySustainArt.org website, where we try to develop projects with artists coming from growing countries.
We have, more or less, three ways to select these artists. Because to select the young artists is much more difficult, because there are a lot of good ones, and because we need to create always special juries to help out, to figure out who are the best artists in the young world.
TNG: WHAT IS THE PROJECT THAT YOU ENJOYED THE MOST SO FAR ? WHY ?
CB: Oh, it is very difficult. Because I am managing this project since ’99 — for fifteen years now. So to mention one is very difficult.
A very complex one was the one that we did with Anish Kapoor during the Venise Biennale three years ago.
But to say that one is better than the other is very difficult. We did such great projects. I remember the Louise Bourgeois show that we did in the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. Or also the Daniel Buren show that we did in collaboration with the Grand Palais and Daniel Buren itself.
So it is really difficult to pick one and say that it was the one that I preferred.
TNG: CAN YOU TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOUR UPCOMING PROJECTS FOR THE BRAND ?
CB: At this moment, we are launching the cup collection of Robert Wilson.
In summer 2014, we did a workshop in his foundation, The Watermill Center, that is outside New York and we created a cup collection coordinated by Robert Wilson. He asked his foundation to create a design and so we did a big event in September at the Triennale museum in Milano to launch the new cup collection.
And the most recent thing that we did was last week. We gave the illy Present Future Prize during the Artissima art fair in Turin. And the nice thing is that the prize now is giving the opportunity to the artist to show his work in the Castello di Rivoli museum outside Turin. So last week, we opened in the Castello di Rivoli the show of the winners. They were two winners in 2013. And we gave the new prize to Rachel Rose, who is the winner of the edition of this year. She will of course have a show next year at the Rivoli museum during the art fair.
TNG: DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR CUSTOMERS DO WITH THE ART COLLECTION (SUCH AS THE ROBERT WILSON ONE) ? DO THEY DRINK THEIR COFFEE IN THEM OR DO THEY KEEP AS AN ART PIECE ?
CB: Oh, I don’t know. I hope they use it. For sure, there is a group of people that are collecting the cups. Because they like everything that we do and everything that is coming out.
But I think most of the people buy two or three collections in their lives and use them for pure pleasure, to have a coffee in them.
And on the other side, we are doing also one collection every year in the bars. So they use the cups with their customers in their bars throughout the world. It’s an important use of the cups.
TNG: WHEN YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT THE BARS ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT THE EPRESSAMENTE CAFÉS ?
CB: No. They are the one that you buy at the bars, so in the shops. But they are still with the same design on the cups. All around the world, they collect the cups to serve the coffee in their bars.
TNG: WHAT IS THE EXPERIENCE THAT YOU ARE TRYING TO ACHIEVE WITH THE ESPRESSAMENTE LOCATIONS ?
CB: Espressamente is our bar. It is not normal clients. So we are trying to do our best to express the illy philosophy to serve the best coffee in the world. To have the real 100% espresso illy: the baristas are trained in our University of Coffee … And we are trying also to develop a project to bring more contemporary art inside the spaces.
TNG: HOW INVOLVED ARE YOU WITH THE CREATION OF THE ADVERTISING FOR THE BRAND ?
CB: Yes. I am the Creative Director of the company. So, I am involved with everything that you see from the company. The art project is the one that I started with when I started to work for illy in ’99. But now I am also involved in the design of the machines, the architecture of our bars, the advertising … Everything that is an expression of the brand is checked by me to see if the brand personality is respected and is the right way. Everything we show outside the company.
So you have to consider my role as the Creative Director. I am more or less involved in everything. Sometimes, fifty percent. Sometimes sixty percent. One hundred in the art project. But I have been working together with the PR department and the marketing to put together all what you see from the company.
Carlo Bach
Art Director
illycaffè
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